[Gllug] OT: Merging UPS outputs

[John Winters]

On Wed, 2005-08-31 at 09:52 +0100, Bernard Peek wrote:
> In message <4314D305.4030203 at qipod.wanadoo.co.uk>, Robert Newson 
> <ran at qipod.wanadoo.co.uk> writes
[snip]
> >The uk ha[ds] round pins on their plugs as well; and you'll usually 
> >find the round pin'd plugs used in theatres.  They were varying in size 
> >and came in 3 values:  smallest 2 amp (I think), middle 5 amp (I 
> >think), largest 15 amp (as used in theatres - well they were when I 
> >last worked in one...the number of the plugs that had the cord sleeve 
> >(moulded into the "lid") cut as you were supposed to put the wire 
> >through them before wiring into the plug was rather large due to the 
> >forgetfulness, and laziness, of the staff/students).
> 
> That's right, the ratings were 2, 5 and 15A. They are still in use for 
> some specialist purposes. In theatres the 15A sockets are used for big 
> lamps fed via dimmers. The smaller sockets are occasionally used in 
> houses where they are fed from the 5A lighting circuits.

15A plugs are used in theatres for a very simple reason - they don't
have fuses in them.  Every time a bulb blows it will take the fuse out
and a single lantern might be connected through several pieces of tail,
each with a plug and socket.  Working through all of those to replace
the fuses would be impossible.  Instead each circuit is individually
fused back at the dimmer rack (with special fast-blow fuses to protect
the dimmers) so you know exactly where to go to replace the fuse.

Tail (extension leads in non-theatre speak) is gradually disappearing
now, with hard-wired sockets close to each potential lamp location.

John

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